Special Feature Chester City No 1

A Very Special Day Out

When it was announced on the Tuesday 25/6/07 that Chesterbus (the name that Chester City Transport was trading under at the time) was going to be sold out to First bus, I decided that the event could not go unmarked.  Having only a week left of MOT on the bus I decided that the only thing that we could do at the museum at this short notice was to do a small but significant gesture to the end of this company for all that they had done for myself and the museum (they had donated 3 buses after all!).   So armed with soapy water, lots of cleaning cloths, some of our members set about making to bus presentable for 'her last day in service'.  She was washed and cleaned ready for Saturday the 30/6/07.  I asked around the working members of the museum weather they would like to join us on our day.  The response was quite promising and on Saturday morning we left St Helens at about 10.30 for our first pick up at Runcorn, after picking up there we had about 10 people on board.   We arrived at Chester about 11.30 first entering the city at Hoole Road end for our next pick up at the old Crosville bus station.  Several people boarded at this point and we now made our way on our first route out of the city on the 1A to Blacon followed by a 2A in the opposite direction.  Next was a trip around the Bus Exchange where the bus created great interest with enthusiasts asking if they could join us later in the day as they were trying to record the last days services in Chester themselves.   John and nick, the two guys that set up the Chester Yahoo website joined us at this point and we totted off to Saltney which is where the very first Tram route ran 100 years before, stopping for several photos to be taken.   We next then made our way back to the birth place of it all, The Depot.  I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that turned up to mark the event, and how word had got around that this 54 year old bus was roaring through the streets of Chester again back where she belonged.  After everybody boarded the bus again (which must have been about 30!) we bid the friendly staff fair well and we made our way out of the city to the terminus of Huntington where again several photographs were taken.   It was then time to call it a day so we made one final trip on a no. 10 Pipers Ash before we dropped everybody back in town and made our sombre way back to St Helens.   All in all a great day enjoyed by everybody on board with very good comments from everybody that joined us on our 'trip down memory lane'.  I was very pleased that memories were rekindled by all the people in Chester when some people just stopped, looked, smiled and even waved as we made our way through the city.   What was to put the final 'icing on the cake' was by my complete surprise Chester no.1 made the front cover of the 'Buses' Magazine to where we had a photo taken at the terminus in Huntington.   Finally a big thankyou to everybody that helped me make that day so special and have helped me over the last 20 odd years in trying to preserve part of Chester's history.   Matt Davies.

                                                                                    Chester City Centre

Paul Holmes
Information Officer
paul@nwmort.co.uk
North West Museum of Road Transport
Email: information@hallstreetdepot.info